(44) Then he saith, I will return into my house from whence I came out; and when he is come, he findeth
it empty, swept, and garnished.
(45) Then goeth he, and taketh with himself seven other spirits more wicked than himself, and they enter
in and dwell there: and the last state of that man is worse than the first. Even so shall it be also unto this
wicked generation.
(46) While he yet talked to the people, behold, his mother and his brethren stood without, desiring to
speak with him.
(47) Then one said unto him, Behold, thy mother and thy brethren stand without, desiring to speak with
thee.
(48) But he answered and said unto him that told him, Who is my mother? and who are my brethren,
(49) And he stretched forth his hand toward his disciples, and said, Behold my mother and my brethren!
(50) For whosoever shall do the will of my Father which is in heaven, the same is my brother, and sister,
and mother‖.
12:1-2 Thy disciples do that which is not lawful to do upon the sabbath...―(1) At that time Jesus went on the sabbath day through the corn; and his disciples were an hungred, and
began to pluck the ears of corn, and to eat. (2) But when the Pharisees saw it, they said unto him, Behold,
thy disciples do that which is not lawful to do upon the sabbath day‖
One of the concepts lost upon the modern reader of the Bible (unfamiliar with the Jewishness of the
Scriptures), is that Y‘shua and the Pharisees were not arguing from vastly different backgrounds. Y‘shua
himself taught as a Pharisee and His dialogue with these religious leaders can very well be considered a
"family argument‖. Had Y‘shua been coming from some new non-Pharisaical viewpoint, the Pharisees would
have had little concern for what He was saying. However, He was arguing within the family and beginning to
convince people that many of the Pharisees were both hypocritical and wrong in their opinion about him.
(See Matt 12:23 in the next section.)
The section from 12:1-12:8 has to do with an accusation made by certain legalistic Pharisees regarding
some of Y‘shua's disciples, picking and eating grain in a field during the Sabbath. The verses shown above
are the key ones in this passage. The Torah does prohibit "work" on Shabbat, and the oral Law of the time
would support the Pharisees claim. (Positive Law 154: Exod 23:12 On resting on the Shabbat.)
―Six days thou shalt do thy work, and on the seventh day thou shalt rest: that thine ox and thine ass may
rest, and the son of thy handmaid, and the stranger, may be refreshed‖. (Exod 23:12)
Y‘shua responds to this in a fourfold manner:
He makes comparison to two accounts from Scripture
He tells them that He is greater than the Temple
He reminds about what He told them to learn earlier (Matt 9:13)
He says that He is Lord of the sabbath day
12:3-5 Have ye not read what David did... have ye not read in the Law
―(3) But he said unto them, Have ye not read what David did, when he was an hungred, and they that were
with him; (4) How he entered into the house of God, and did eat the shewbread, which was not lawful for him
to eat, neither for them which were with him, but only for the priests? (5) Or have ye not read in the law, how
that on the sabbath days the priests in the temple profane the sabbath, and are blameless?‖
The first Scripture Y‘shua quotes is of David eating of the ―show bread‖ (1 Sam 21:6), also known as the
―Bread of the Presence‖ or the "Bread of the Face" – something that was reserved for the priests to eat,
followed by how the Torah allows for priests to do certain type of work on the Sabbath as part of their Temple
service (Lev 24:5-9). His point in quoting these is to establish the principle that within the framework of the
Torah is a hierarchy of principles.
―So the priest gave him hallowed bread: for there was no bread there but the shewbread, that was taken
from before the LORD, to put hot bread in the day when it was taken away‖. (1Sam 21:6)
(5) ―And thou shalt take fine flour, and bake twelve cakes thereof: two tenth deals shall be in one cake.
(6) And thou shalt set them in two rows, six on a row, upon the pure table before the LORD.
(7) And thou shalt put pure frankincense upon each row, that it may be on the bread for a memorial, even an
offering made by fire unto the LORD.
(8) Every sabbath he shall set it in order before the LORD continually, being taken from the children of Israel
by an everlasting covenant.